1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to panel carrying devices and more particularly pertains to a new panel carrying device for allowing a user to grip a handle for packing concrete forms used in industrial and commercial wall and pier pours.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Concrete form panels are used to construct temporary forms for forming concrete. Due to the strength and rigidity needed from the forms, the form panels tend to be heavy. The form panels are reusable, and in the process of these repeated uses, the surfaces of the form panel that are not directly in contact with the formed concrete can get caked with various debris including dirt and excess concrete from earlier pours. Because the concrete form panels are reusable, the panels must be repeatedly moved from jobsite to jobsite, which typically involves stacking and unstacking the form panels between uses. Much of the moving of the concrete form panels involves the grabbing, lifting, and carrying of each of the form panels by hand. This process is made more difficult by the fact that the concrete form panels typically do not have any convenient and useful hand hold on the edges of the form panel, so pulling a form panel from the top of a stack of form panels often requires two hands just to get a suitable grip on the panel to slide it from the stack. Further, placing the forms back into a stack can put fingers at risk as the fingers of the mover must be removed from below the frame of the form panel before the fingers become crushed between the form panel being placed on the stack and the form panel already on the top of the stack. The heavy metal frame of the form panel can easily pinch the mover's fingers during the staking process.
Known prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 3,498,662; U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,278; U.S. Pat. No. 2,623,772; U.S. Pat. No. 2,620,955; U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,977; and U.S. Pat. No. Des. 361,934.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not disclose a new panel carrying device. The inventive device includes an elongate handle with opposite ends. A pair of elongate arms are each mounted on one of the opposite ends of the handle with the handle extending between the arms. Each of the arms has a first end and a second end, with the first end of each of the arms being insertable into a hole in the concrete form panel. An elongate slot is formed in each of the arms for engaging an edge of the wall of the panel about the hole in the panel. The slot is formed in the first end of the arm. A longitudinal axis of the slot of each of the arms is positioned substantially perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the respective arm for aligning the wall of the panel substantially parallel to the handle when each of the arms is extended through the holes in the wall of the concrete form panel.
In these respects, the panel carrying device according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of allowing a user to grip a handle for packing concrete forms used in industrial and commercial wall and pier pours.